Abstract

This study investigated the undergraduate students’ perceptions on HIV/AIDS and precautions they were taking in preventing themselves from infection with HIV. It examined the influence of selected demographic variables such as gender, age, religion, and faculty on students’ perceptions of HIV/AIDS. A sample of 2106 students (female = 993; male = 1113) was randomly selected from three purposively selected universities in Southwestern Nigeria. These universities are Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile – Ife; University of Lagos, Lagos; and University of Ado – Ekiti, Ado – Ekiti. Six faculties namely Education, Technology, Health Sciences, Law, Science and Social Sciences representing proportionally humanities and science – based faculties were selected from these three universities. Data for the study were collected using a research instrument titled “Questionnaire on Perception of AIDS” (QPA). The instrument was adapted from Oladepo & Brieger (1994) and Unuigbe & Ogbeide (1999). The results of data analysis indicated that 81% of the students believed that AIDS existed, 82% were of the view that AIDS was a disease associated with sexual intercourse and 48% believed AIDS could be cured. Also, 45% of the students believed abstinence was the precaution to take in order not to get infected with HIV. Results further showed that student gender had no statistically significant influence on students’ perception of HIV/AIDS (t = -.3.06 p > 0.05).The results also indicated that faculty of the students had statistically significant influence on students’ perception of HIV/AIDS (F = 10.585, p < 0. 05).